October 2017

February 29, 2012

Hello! Emily here again with another fun day of scrapbooking inspiration featuring my favorite subject, Music! Today is our last day of February, so be sure to take one last peek at our fabulous February music gallery!

What I love the most about music is that anyone can make it and everyone can enjoy it! Today I am going to hone in on the meat and potatoes of music: performance. Let's face it, there wouldn't be music without someone to perform it. And by "perform" I truly mean anything from my daughter's rousing seventeen verses of "Farmer in the Dell" during the car ride home to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra playing Beethoven. All music is beautiful and meaningful to the person that created it. So whether you are a musician yourself or just a music aficionado, I hope you will be inspired by these practice and performance centered layouts...featuring everyone from babies to our very own Wcs team!

To begin, I have an easy layered layout of my cousin's son. As a music teacher, I make an effort to give musical gifts to all the babies! I realize this makes many of the parents dislike me a little bit!! It's all in the name of music, so it's alright with me!

Wcs team member Francine Clouden shares with us two adorable layouts of her son making music. I love the bright colors of his xylophone in the first example!

Kelly Jeppson shares a sweet story of her son's multiple musical experiences over the Christmas holiday.

Aly Dosdall created a fun colorful layout of her daughter performing as the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. I love how she has circled her daughter to make her stand out amongst all the other children!

Ah, the piano recital. It seems like everyone who ever took piano lessons has memories (hopefully fond ones!) of their piano recitals. Christa Paustenbaustenbaugh's lovely layout of her daughter's piano recital includes both a photo of the piano as well as a photo of her daughter with her post-performance flowers. I love all the little pops of red in this layout!

As I stated earlier, "performance" doesn't need to mean something formal. A performance can be something as simple as an impromptu song in the shower! Alexandra Sirugue-MacLeod embraces her daughter's love of singing anywhere and everywhere in this beautiful and simple layout.

Celeste Smith created two gorgeous digital layouts that center around her son's saxophone playing. The photography on both of these layouts is so creative. I love the close up shot of the instrument in the first one and the photo from behind on the second.

Like the photograph taken from behind in Celete's layout, Marnie Flores has created a touching layout that features a photograph of son playing the piano taken from behind. Perhaps this is the best way to get teenagers to let you take their picture! Read her journaling closely. I had to smile at the last sentence regarding the girls at school!

The fingers in the next layout belong to me! After playing piano for 20 years, I was shocked at how hard learning the guitar was for me! I took lessons for two years while I was in graduate school, and I'm a bit ashamed to admit that I never really quite got the hang of it all, and I don't even have a guitar to play anymore.

Here at write.click.scrapbook we have a few team members who have music jobs. I teach general music, Emily Pitts teaches piano lessons, and our very own Lisa Kisch is a talented stage actress. This amazing journaling-heavy layout is one she created during a break from the stage. You can read her journaling here.

Finally, Paula Gilarde created a digital layout that talks about a memory of a single performance from her past. I absolutely love all the digital elements in this layout. It is perfect, as I'm sure was her performance.

Have you created any music practice or music performance themed layouts? We'd love to see them in our Flickr gallery or linked up here!

February 28, 2012

Hi everyone! Emily here with another fun idea for incorporating music into your layouts. If you are anything like me you've got a playlist of current favorite songs all ready to go on your computer, iPod, or cell phone. Current technology makes it super easy to create a customized playlist. Gone are the days where you have to buy a whole cd for one song. Now you can buy individual songs or even just listen to your favorites on the internet. It's crazy to think how far we've come from the days of mixed tapes and burned cds! Documenting your playlists can be a great way to not only keep track of what songs you are loving at any given time, it also serves as a little musical time capsule that you can revisit any time you like!

Looking through my layouts, I found three that included playlists. I loved comparing both my scrapping style through the years, as well as my list of favorite music over the past five years. There are actually a few similarities between the lists. Regina Spektor and Ingrid Michaelson appear on all three lists,and Coldplay and The Beatles are on two of the three. My first playlist layout is from 2007. You've gotta love the old school giant white iPod!

The second list was from the summer of 2009. My list was a little edgier and my iPod a tad more modern!

Finally, I created a recent list of favorites for our February gallery. I opted not to put a photo of my iPod on this one! I am a big fan of photoless layouts, and this one is no exception.

Wcs team member Katrina Simeck also shared both a recent playlist layout and one from a few years ago. I love how she included the album covers of the songs on her current list of favorites.

Emily Pitts created a photoless playlist layout with the songs listed on a boarder surrounding the layout. I love all the fun elements she included inside her border.

Marnie Flores has created two very different playlist layouts. The first includes a list of artists she listened to during what she has dubbed her "dark moody music" days of college. I love that her layout is equally dark and moody!

Marnie's second playlist is a stark contrast to the first. Her visually stunning layout features a list of musicians who have inspired her throughout her lifetime.

Finally, Erin Sweeny shares a playlist of her girls' current favorite albums. Documenting your child's favorite music is a fantastic idea!

Here are some other fun playlist layout ideas to consider:

The playlist from your wedding or another special event

Your child's bedtime playlist

Feeling down? How about a "cheer up" playlist!

A "stuck in my head" playlist

A playlist including the current favorite song of each member of your family

A workout playlist

A "blast from the past" playlist

Have you ever created a playlist layout? I'd love to see it! Link it up here, or share with me some of your favorite ideas for a playlist layout!

February 27, 2012

Hello! I'm Emily Spahn, and I'm so excited to be your blog hostess this week! This month our gallery at write. click. scrapbook. focuses on music. I had to smile when I discovered that my very first gallery as a part of the write. click. scrapbook. team would center around music, as music has been a very instrumental part of my life. Sorry, I couldn't resist the pun! I have been a musical person since I was a small child. I began piano lessons in Kindergarten, was involved in band, chorus, and drama throughout high school and college, and I ultimately followed my musical dreams to become a music teacher. I currently teach general music to children aged 3 through 4th grade. So to say that music plays a central role in my life daily would not be an understatement!

I have found that my love of music frequently spills over into my scrapbooking in many ways. This week I will be sharing with you a number of ways to feature and showcase music in your scrapbooking projects. Today I am starting with my favorite and most often used musical connection: song lyrics. I am constantly finding myself using song lyrics in my layouts, whether it be as a title, a journaling prompt, or even as the journaling itself! There are some incredible song writers in this world, and quite often I find that a song title or a section of lyrics will fit my layout perfectly.

Lyrics as a Title

My first layout uses a popular winter/holiday song, "Baby it's Cold Outside." The layout has nothing to do with winter, but is actually about my honeymoon to Alaska.

I am admittedly a bit obsessed with the song, "You are My Sunshine." I remember my father singing it to me as a child, and I have collected a number of prints with the lyrics that hang around my home. I had been wanting to create a "You are My Sunshine" titled layout for a very long time. Of course, when I finally got around to it, the thickers I chose were too large to fit the entire title!

A few years ago I heard the song "Wintersong" by Sarah McLachlan and Ingrid Michaelson and fell in love instantly. This simple layout features some of the things that would be included in my Wintersong.

Wcs team member Amy Sorensen not only used the lyrics from a popular Adele song as the title of her layout, she also journaled about the song itself. Her heartfelt words tell the story of how this song makes her feel when she hears it.

Donna Jannuzzi used a fun variety of alphabet stickers and thickers to create her title on this fun layout. Her lyrics come from the Coldplay song "Don't Panic."

The title of Celeste Smith's gorgeous layout comes from the song "Just Breathe" by Pearl Jam.

Sometimes lyrics can be used in humorous ways. Take, for instance, the title of Marie Taylor's layout. You can't beat a song by a 90's band wearing their clothes backwards!

I also have found myself inspired by some old-school hip-hop...

Finally, I was inspired by a fun children's song in this layout of my niece jumping on her bed!

Lyrics as Journaling

In addition to using lyrics in my titles, I have many layouts where I use the lyrics themselves as the journaling. I sometimes find it awkward to write out my feeling in my journaling. I used to shy away from journaling at all on my layouts, but now that I have children, it's gotten a bit easier. Sometimes when I am struggling I find that it's easier to just use words that someone else wrote. In fact, there are many times when a song can say what I am feeling even better than I can.

In my first layout, I used a line from my daughter's favorite song at the time as the title. My journaling not only includes a portion of the song lyrics but also a small paragraph about the song.

In this older layout, I used the first line of the popular song by Feist as both my title and my journaling.

Do any of you have a song that inspires you so much that you find yourself listening to it over and over again and perhaps even using it on multiple layouts or projects? Such is the case with "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds. There is so much to love in this song. I have used it on both a layout of my husband and myself and a layout about my son's birth.

Lisa Ottosson used both the title and the lyrics of the song "Forever Young" in this layout. She also threw in some "You are My Sunshine" which, of course, made me smile!

One of my all-time favorite songs is "In My Life" by the Beatles. I love the lyrics so much that I wanted to include them in this layout of my husband on our wedding day. Instead of using patterned paper, I stamped the song's lyrics out to create the background for my layout.

Finally, this layout uses a selection of words from the song "Murder in the City" by the Avett Brothers, which is a song with very heartfelt lyrics, in spite of it's morose title!

Finally, wcs team member Diane Payne created this beautiful photoless layout to showcase her One Little Word for 2012.

How about you? Have you used song lyrics as a title on a layout? Or even as journaling? I'd love to see your creations using song lyrics! I'll be back tomorrow with another fun way to incorporate music into your scrapbooking!

February 26, 2012

February 25, 2012

I loved this month's theme. Music moves my heart in ways I can hardly explain. A song from the past can drag me back to a memory long since faded and make it as radiant as the day it happened. I can turn on any Air Supply song and instantly begin to sing every. single. word. I can't seem to remember my grocery list longer than 5 minutes but I have a whole vault of 1980s lyrics forever seared into my brain!

How does music affect you and your life? Do you love it? Have you a favorite song? or genre? Is there a song that swings you back to your childhood? or your wedding day? Is there an artist that got you through a particularly rough time? Or do you prefer a silence? Either way, have you scrapbooked it?

If you haven't had a chance to be inspired by the gallery yet, let's take once last long lingering look at the loveliness it contains.

Aly First, look closely at Lexie's face. Can you see the excitement and the thrill of the stage? Such a terrific photo. I love how Aly didn't shy away from color on this layout. The costumes were vibrant and bright. I think many of us would have tried to go very neutral on this page, but Aly shows us we need not. And because the star of the photo is in white, she isn't any bit lost as we take in the layout.

LisaK I hope you took a minute to read Lisa's journaling. It is honest and raw and made me miss the stage, too, and it isn't even my place! Moving journaling gets me! I love, too, that she handwrote her journaling. Quite a task to undertake, but it makes the heart of it shine so much more brightly.

Karen When I read Karen's title, I could immediately hear the trilling laughter of my own sweet Poppy. Her laugh climbs a scale and is every bit musical. I am going to have to steal Karen's idea and journal the music of the laughter. I think Karen's layout is a good reminder, too, that when you sit down to scrapbook a challenge, there is a way to make a page that fits the theme even if it isn't the straightforward option.

Francine When I first saw Francine's layout, I giggled at the terrific photos. Not only did she capture the action of the drumming, she also memorialized the delight on both his face and that of his uncle. Speaking of great photos, don't you find it is so easy to journal on layouts when your photograph so perfectly aligns with the story? Photos like these make for my favorite layouts to create (read: easiest to create, therefore favorite to create!!).

Christa Speaking of layouts that are creative takes on a theme, I love this! Christa cleverly wrapped her title up the side and across the top, providing a strong structural element within which she tucked the other elements of her layout. By starting her title treatment at the same horizontal level as her photos, Christa has created a focal point for her layout. She also has repeating elements with the circles (the "o" in to, the sunburst, and the circle behind the heart), the three tags and flags, and the repeated bit of red. All of which serve to create an incredibly cohesive layout.

LisaO Did you notice how many references to current culture Lisa has added to her layout? Not only does she list her current playlist, she also used a current photo. And not only are the colors are at the height of fashion, so, too, are the patterns and the little iconic elements--the bird, the tape. All these elements combine to further tell the story of right now, not just the music.

EmilyS I consider myself quite well rounded when it comes to music, but I must admit Emily's layout had me rushing to my computer to listen to these songs. A few are also favorites of mine, so I figured I might just like them all. So hooray to Emily's layout for helping me expand my playlist!!! Now, onto the design, might I just say how much I adore white on white? And the little tiny graph lines in red did me in. Love love. I thought putting the songs on individual strips was genius, as was not worrying whether or not the lines matched up with those below!

EmilyS in case you haven't yet read Emily's journaling, go get a tissue, and now go read. I'll wait... What a sweet moment captured. To me, this is the very heart of scrapbooking. Pure love.

Celeste I would love to have a photo of my music lessons. I spent years with my favorite teachers and yet, not a photo exists. If your children take lessons, or you do, be inspired by Celeste, and get a photograph of it!!

Kelly What a fun memory to record! Watching your child discover a new skill/talent is special which makes it scrap worthy by definition, right? I love how Kelly printed Crystal's label. It makes the journaling fit so well. Perfect!

Katrina Hooray! Katrina is back! Oh, Katrina! We have missed you so!! Welcome home! My favorite part of Katrina's layout is how she used the single covers as the "photographs." And could the flair be any more perfect?

Marnie I love the juxtaposition of Nigel's beautiful skill with his ratty athletic clothes. Sometimes we scrapbook photos that aren't perfect, and then realize that the layout is better for its little sprinkles of reality.

Marnie This list and layout is so overdue. Please, sit down right now and make a layout about your favorite music. Don't put it off any longer!

Diane Do you know what I love most about Diane's layout? The little letter stickers for s-h-i-n-e. And you do you know why? Usually, when we are going to emphasize a word, we think to put it in a bigger font/sticker. But here, Diane made it smaller. And it works! So well!

Keshet This sweet layout makes me swoon. And makes me want to put together a layout about how it felt to sing to my firstborn. Do you like, too, how Keshet's photo and journaling are taped onto the wood paper? It sort of makes it look like it was taped to a wooden wall, no?

Marie How much fun is this layout? Do you like how Marie used a record and tape on her layout? Cute!

Paula I love that Paula scanned her music in for her background paper! It makes such a statement and it adds to the story so well! I love, too, how she put her journaling in a column right in the middle of her page. Center stage. Not a usual placement, but it works so well, don't you think?

Marie The whiny song! How awesome is that? I can hear one of our three as I type!! I think Marie wonderful for catching a photo of a whiny child. I rarely think to grab my camera when the whine is on. But it is what it is, yes?

Alexandra I love the size on this layout. Long and thin. I also love how Alexandra juxtaposed the modern "get down" with the gold doily. And then she tied the tag with a neutral string is so simple and yet, the perfect last addition. It's those details that Alexandra gets to right!

Francine This layout is a wonderful example of using 5 photos on one layout. By including all 5 photos, we get a much better sense of the occasion than if Francine had chosen just one. And because she grouped them as she did, the layout stays clean and polished.

Amy Having loved Amy's teen week, I am now wondering if this is one of the photos from the "I just had my hair done" collection. (Such a fun photo idea, by the way!) Sometimes lyrics are the perfect accent. And sometimes the perfect title. Also, did you read in Amy's notes how her lyrics block came from the negatives of a Silhouette cutout? That's what I call a two for one!

Donna I love the colors on this layout! The blue and clouds, the green, the little bit of pink, the pop of orange. And then the butterflies! Don't you love how Karen and Donna sneak items traditionally considered "girly" on their pages about their sons? Woohoo!

Erin Like Katrina, Erin let the album covers stand tall as an element of design and story. I love how she recorded her children's favorites, and not just her own playlist. A good idea, for certain! It would be interesting to make a layout like this every couple of years and then compare and see the changes! Oh, the inevitable changes!

EmilyP Do you like how the entire center of Emily's layout is just numbers? No photo, no journaling. But so much fun! And then as you look around, and I mean around, you see her top ten list.

The theme this month, Music, offered much inspiration for journaling, and photography, and our gallery was ripe with inspirational design. I took the challenge to document my musical tastes, and the design challenge of using a list, and added in some inspiration from Emily's layout, and put this one together.

February 24, 2012

Hello! Welcome to the final day of vintage photo week. So far, we've covered a variety of ways to tell the stories of your ancestors. Today, I want to talk about bringing those vintage photos out of the albums and using them in your everyday life.

I spent some time surfing the web and collected some ideas that I think you will find inspiring and really get you thinking about other ways to use your vintage photos.

Home Decor

I like to incorporate photos into my home decor. A couple easy things I like to do is display a layout or photos on my old typewriter.

Above my typewriter I have a frame backed with chicken wire that I use to display favorite photos.

Using my scrapbooking supplies I decorated each photo. I use clips to attach the photos to the chicken wire, making it easy to switch them out for different themes and seasons.

This is just the beginning. There are so many amazing ideas on the web. I hope a few of these projects inspire you to use some of your photos for decor, parties and gift giving too.

I have one final note before I wrap up the week; please make sure you are using copies of your vintage photos in all of your projects. Without a negative, they are irreplaceable and should not be altered or damaged.

Thank you for hanging out with me this past week and allowing me to share my love of vintage photos with you!

Your stories were wonderful! Especially the ones about GPS leading you astray! heehee! Thank you, too, to those of you who hurried to make a layout from our exclusive sketch! We appreciate your playing along.

Tracy, please send you mailing address to us at writeclickscrapbook at gmail dot com. We look forward to hearing from you and just know how much fun you will have with Becky's book!

Diane is up shortly with her last installment in her Vintage Photos week. Goodness, don't you feel so motivated to scrap some of those old photos? Her pages are so fun! What a lucky group we are to have her join us!

Today, one lucky number will receive a copy of Becky Fleck’s second book, Scrapbook PageMaps 2, Sketches for Creative Layouts. This book features 90 sketches (in five popular sizes), as well as card, home décor and digital chapters, along with 140 fantastic layouts, cards and papercrafting projects. A companion DVD on how to make the most of your sketches is also included. Sixty-four handy punch-out, laminated cards can be found in the back of the book (sketch on one side, sample on the other) and are great for taking to crops! Becky’s best-selling first book, Scrapbook Pagemaps 1, can be found at leading booksellers, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Chapters, as well as many local scrapbook stores throughout the world.

Today we have a bonus feature for you! Becky has created an exclusive sketch for you, our dear readers!

If you would like to be considered for today's giveaway, please leave a comment telling us about a time when a map helped you out! Or perhaps how your life has been transformed since maps became mobile in the form of gps!! And then, don't forget to make a page about it!

And as a bonus feature, if you would like a second opportunity to comment, create a page using our exclusive sketch, and leave a comment and a link to your layout! We can't wait to see what you do with it!

Comments will remain open through this evening. One lucky number will be selected at random and posted tomorrow. Don't forget to check back as it is your responsibility to claim your lucky number by midnight Saturday!

February 22, 2012

Hello! Welcome to the another day of vintage photo ideas. The last couple days we've discussed telling the stories of our ancestors, and how to include journaling for photos that are missing stories. Today, I want to talk about making connections!

Over the last couple days, as you looked through your vintage photos did you notice any traits or activities in your ancestors that are similar to your family's interests and traits today?

For example, I have a photo of both my mom and I playing with a doll as a child.

Even though we are separated by 25 years in age we both liked playing with dolls when we were young. Putting both of these photos on a page and journaling about the similarities is my favorite type of page to make.

Here is an example of using photos from different generations to show a shared activity.

{Note: I used an action on the photo of my son to make it match the style of the other photos}

What little boy doesn't like to dress up like a cowboy? This layout shows three generations of little cowpokes; my son, husband, and father-in-law.

Aly Dosdall shares a wonderful layout of three generations of mothers and daughters.Aly listed all of their shared interests and traits on the circle around the photos.

Here is one last example.

On this layout I wanted to show the strong resemblance between my son and my dad and the personality traits they share. Someday future generations will look at this page and they may be able to pick out similar traits too.

I would like to leave you with a Chevrolet clip celebrating 100 years with then and now!

Doesn't that clip make you want to dig through your photos looking for connections so you can make a layout? It certainly shows, that although some things change, others stand the test of time and remain the same.

I'll be back here on Friday for the final vintage photo post. I hope you will join me!

February 21, 2012

Hello everyone! Welcome to another day of vintage photo fun. I must admit I'm having fun changing out my bio picture with vintage photos. Today I'm featuring my mom (click on the photo to enlarge it) on her very first day of school.

Yesterday I shared several ideas for telling meaningful and engaging stories from your past. You may be thinking to yourself, "I don't have any stories for my photos and there isn't anyone that I can ask".

Well, I'm here to tell you, you can still use them, and in some cases, even create meaningful layouts.

Make Observations about Fashion, Trends or Surroundings

Creating a meaningful layout when you don't have a story is actually pretty easy to do if you take cues from the fashion, decor, trends and surroundings in the photo(s). Take this layout, for example.

When I was looking at these photos I realized I didn't know anything about them, except who the people were and a couple dates. However, I was fascinated by the clothing of my grandma and my husband's grandma so instead of creating a page saying "this is grandma in 1935", I decided to journal my observations and thoughts about the fashions.

Here's another look at this approach.

In this photo of my grandma I was intrigued by the little details I saw; the flag hanging from the porch, the rocking chairs (one just the right size for her), and the doll and carriage. I simply made my observations into the journaling and even drew inspiration for the title from the flag hanging in the background.

Including your observations and perspective is a great way to make it meaningful and draw the reader into your layout, making them want to linger and really study the photo.

State the Facts

Another idea, is to simply state the facts about the photo.

Now, I could have journaled about our Easter traditions during my childhood, but I had already done that on another layout, so I decided to list the facts that I saw in this photo of my sister and I.

I thought I looked like I was pretty interested in what she was doing so I created a little blurb about that in my journaling. I also knew this was my first Easter since I was sitting in a bouncy seat so I used that for the title and added the date.

I don't have many photos of myself as a baby, so I'm happy I included this in my album, even without a story.

What if there aren't any clues in the photo?

You can follow Paula Gilarde's lead and journal about the mystery. I love the creative approach that Paula used for this photo of her dad with a parrot on his shoulder, even stating that it didn't seem like something her Dad would do.

I Don't Even Know Their Name

Now that you've been looking through your pile of vintage photos you probably have quite a few people that you can't identify. Aly Dosdall shares a great solution for using all those "nameless" faces on this layout.

I love how how Aly included every single person that she didn't have a name for and turned it into an opportunity to journal about why it is so important to tell her story! Genius!

I hope I have shown you that it is not only ok, but that you should be including heritage photos that don't have a story. They are part of your past and you and future generations will enjoy looking at all the people, places and things from days gone by.

Tomorrow, I'll be sharing my favorite way to use vintage photos. I'll see you then!